2.1 The retail marketing mix
Marketing is an underlying philosophy that guides business activities, but how does a retailerdo marketing? A retailer must engage in planning, research and analysis before implementing a marketing strategy. At the core of any retail marketing plan is the mix consisting of the four Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) of marketing. The following images show retail examples of each of the elements of the mix and the next activity describes each element of the mix further.

Figure 4
-------------------------------------------------
Activity 5: Reading about the mix
Allow 30 minutes for this activity
Purpose: this task will help you explore the elements of the marketing mix and develop your understanding of how the mix applies to retailing.
Task: The marketing mix is often called the four Ps and it represents four discreet areas of business planning and marketing decision-making. The four Ps are: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Find out what is involved and how these concepts relate to retail management by reading the following extracts in Box 1. Then make some notes on what each element of the mix means to the retailer.
Box 1: The four Ps of the marketing mix
Product
In general marketing terms, the product decision involves deciding what goods or services should be offered for sale to a particular group of customers. An important aspect of this element of the mix is new product development. As technology and tastes change, products become out of date and inferior to those of the competition, so companies must update products with features that customers value or completely replace the product. Market leadership can change as new products are developed that give greater benefits than old ones. For example, the Sony Walkman was the market leader in portable music players. Following its launch, the Apple iPod soon outsold